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Tom Herman is now apparently where he was meant to be all along: a head coach at a big-time university in a major conference.

He may have been destined for his destination, but the place where he will coach is still a far cry from the place where he played college football: California Lutheran University.

Herman has definitely gone from small-time to big-time football, named Sunday as Texas head coach, replacing Charlie Strong, who was fired.

Texas had its sights on Herman from the very start and hired him within hours of firing Strong. The Longhorns knew he was a Texas guy and had been one for a long time, even though he was born in Cincinnati and grew up in Simi Valley.

After Herman’s first assistant coaching gig at Division III Texas Lutheran, he was hired as a graduate assistant at Texas under Mack Brown, then moving to Sam Houston State as wide receivers coach. Next came a string of offensive coordinator jobs, at Texas State and Rice before he finally moved out of the Lone Star State, to Iowa State and then to Ohio State under Urban Meyer. He won the Frank Broyles Award there as the nation’s top assistant coach in 2014.

Herman moved back to Texas, finally landing his first head coaching position at Houston in 2015. The Cougars, who are still known more for their basketball history than their football exploits, nevertheless returned to national prominence under Herman’s leadership. They went 13-1 and won the Peach Bowl over Florida State in his first season. This season they are 9-3 with wins over Oklahoma and Louisville.

Herman’s contract was reported as being for five years and worth more than $5 million per year with escalators that will make the final year worth more than $6 million.

The new coach will have even more than the usual amount of pressure that comes with heading a major college football program. He leaves disappointed players and fans in Houston and players who supported Strong in Texas.

Texas, which has had three straight losing seasons, is full of pressure from regents, donors and alumni that can crush a coach who isn’t ready for it. Herman sounded ready.

“Pressure comes from being unprepared,” Herman, 41, said in his introductory news conference. “We are prepared for this job. We are prepared to be successful.”

He has sounded prepared ever since he was an all-conference wide receiver at Cal Lutheran for former coach Scott Squires and graduated cum laude in 1997 with a degree in business administration. He is a member of Mensa International, the society for people with high IQs.

But his large intellectual capacity doesn’t mean he can’t relate to players.

“He is one of the biggest goofballs there is,” former Cal Lutheran quarterback Ryan Huisenga told The Star in 2015. “When we were just hanging around with a bunch of teammates at CLU, he was always willing to put himself out there and kind of take the heat off everybody else.

“I think that is what makes him such a great recruiter. He has his intellect, but at the same time he can be just a regular guy and relate to kids.”

Relating to kids is one thing, but relating to regents and alumni is another. But Herman has yearned for the head-coaching spotlight and at Texas, he’s got it.

THE WEEK JUST PAST

Now, while realizing I’m not even sure about how to spell Mensa, here’s a look at the week just past:

• Those of you disheartened by Michigan’s loss to Ohio State on Saturday and are again fervently crying out for an eight-team college football playoff, get over it. It’s not happening anytime soon, maybe never.

• USC fans are among those who would benefit from an eight-team playoff, but the Trojans’ eight-game winning streak came too late. Even the chance of them going to the Rose Bowl looks slight. There’s likely a trip to Texas — for the Cotton or Alamo Bowl — in their future.

• Meanwhile, UCLA fans would be happy to simply be bowl-eligible. The 4-8 Bruins are going nowhere fast.

• Some UCLA fans would like to see coach Jim Mora go, but that’s not going to happen. He’s been successful overall and besides, it would cost too much — nearly $15 million — to buy out his contract.

• The Lakers may be only 9-9, but they and coach Luke Walton are receiving praise for how they’re going about grooming their young players. Success may not be immediate, but there are definitely some pieces in place for the future.

• With a stadium vote failing in San Diego, there’s new talk about the Chargers moving to Los Angeles. Isn’t one mediocre National Football League team enough?

• Pro Football Talk reports the NFL is considering sharply limiting the number of future Thursday night games or maybe getting rid of the package altogether. Oversaturation of the NFL? Could there be such a thing? Oh, yeah. And there has been for years now.

• To comply with Major League Baseball rules, it’s reported the Dodgers will have to reduce debt. They’re expected to cut their payroll, which was $300 million in 2015 to around the $200 million mark by 2018. Wow, $200 million is still quite a credit limit. Instead of running a baseball team, maybe the Dodgers’ owners should be in Congress.